Terry Puhl 15
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Jean McCord Babineaux Allen Bogard??? ORAL HISTORY PROJECT in Celebration of the City of Sugar Land 60th Anniversary GOODSILL: Could we start with your date of birth? GOODSILL: Tell me why they would leave Hungary? PUHL: July 8, 1956. I was born and lived in the city of PUHL: I have no idea why my Puhl grandparents left when they did. Melville, Saskatchewan. It was a city of 5,000 and is a Probably for the opportunity to get land. My grandparents had a considerable railway and farming community. The Canadian National amount of farmland out in that area. I always tell people they lived quite Railway runs right through it so that was the main employer comfortably during the 1930s because they grew poppies and shipped the and still is. I knew everybody and everybody knew me. poppy seeds down to eastern Canada, which was a very profitable business. They did not experience the Dirty Thirties like others did. My dad, Frank Puhl, was a farmer and then he became the owner of the Massey Ferguson dealership and continued GOODSILL: Do you have brothers and sisters? to farm. My dad was born in Melville 1915 after his parents came over from Hungary. PUHL: I have three sisters and one brother and they all live in Canada. I’m the second youngest. First was Delores, then Gerald, Valerie, me (my given My mom’s maiden name was Margaret Gulash, a true name is Terrance), and then Catherine. Hungarian name. She was from Manitoba, the province just east of Saskatchewan, in the Swan River area. The two GOODSILL: Tell me what your life was like growing up. families, being Hungarian, knew each other. My mom is still alive. She’s 94. My dad passed away when he was almost PUHL: My dad was quite active with all the baseball teams that I played 94, about 10 years ago. on. We were very close to our relatives. All Hungarian on both sides so we spent a lot of our weekends with our relatives. My dad was a very hard worker and my mom raised the family. My dad was tough. When he said to do something, you did it. Growing up in Melville you had the flexibility to go anywhere you wanted. It was a safe environment with no issues at all. I grew up in the Catholic Church so I went to Catholic school all the way until high school. When I was in high school, they created a comprehensive school comprised of both the public and Catholic schools. It was grades 10 through 12 and my class was the first class to go through all three years. There was a very healthy competition between the public and the That kind of lit a fire Catholic schools. I knew a lot of the kids because I had played baseball with them. under me. WOW - GOODSILL: Did everybody in your family play sports? baseball could be a potential career. PUHL: They played some sports but not at the levels that I did. In high school I played basketball, volleyball, football. I was the quarterback on the football team and I thought that was what I was going to do, going to college at the University of Saskatchewan. But when I was 15 I went to a baseball try-out camp in a visiting city and the Cincinnati Reds said they would like to sign me. But at that time, in Canada, you were ineligible to sign at the age of Terry Puhl 15. That kind of lit a fire under me. WOW - baseball could be a potential career. However, when I was 17 and could sign with parental signature, the Reds didn’t want to sign me. (laughs) But the Houston Astros did. I still remember the signing. We GOODSILL: Did you have a signing bonus? were playing in a national tournament in Barrhead, Alberta, and I was named the Most Valuable Player in the tournament and the Most Valuable Pitcher. The scout, PUHL: Yes. I did get a signing bonus. I got Wayne Morgan, asked if I was interested in a professional career. I said, “Absolutely!” $1,000 to sign, a pair of spikes and a new glove. He said, “Well, I’ll come to your house in two weeks.” I was starting my senior year. (chuckles) Two weeks to the day, I came back from school and he was sitting in our kitchen with my mom and dad talking. He wanted to go out to the local baseball field so he GOODSILL: Did you feel rich? could see if I was throwing properly, how I ran, and how I hit. He said, “I know a lot about you but I want to make sure your arm is okay because you pitched a lot in that PUHL: I did! But it was an opportunity that I tournament.” I ran though my paces and when came back from that little try-out he knew I probably would not get again. I had to sat me down in the kitchen and said, “I’d like to offer you a contract.” move on it. It required my signature and both my parents’ signatures. My mom would not sign. With the $500 they paid us a month I actually She said later that she knew that if she signed, I would never come back, I would be saved some money. (laughing) We lived pretty gone. She had really good insight because I never really did go back after I left. My sparingly in the minor leagues. But it was okay. I dad signed and she walked out of the kitchen, and I signed her name. (laughs) So just had to take care of myself. It’s not like I had any that’s how we moved on. other distractions. It was baseball, eight hours a day. The nice thing about Canada and the U. S. is there are so many similarities. It GOODSILL: A lot of athletes today do weight was a cultural shock for me to come down to the U. S. because whatever there training and all that. Was that a part of it back then? is in Canada, there is ten times more of it down here. It doesn’t matter what it is. Opportunities are ten times greater. It was a tough first year because it was the first PUHL: It was a little bit different back then than time I’d ever been away from home. I didn’t see anyone in my family for six months! it is now. Nowadays if you are a high draft pick, you I spent that time in Florida and in Virginia. are getting paid a lot of money upfront in a signing bonus. You have the flexibility to do a lot of things. GOODSILL: What is the day-to-day life of a young ballplayer like? Where did I didn’t. We did everything on our own when it you live? What did you eat? came to conditioning. We didn’t have a trainer other than the one on the team who took care of PUHL: I ended up renting a house with three other players. We cooked our own injuries. It was a different era of baseball. It was old meals, washed our own clothes, and rode the bus. There were a LOT of bus rides. 2 Oral History Project • City of Sugar Land school. No nonsense. If you caused trouble you got your GOODSILL: At that young age, how did you take care of your arm, your pink slip unless you were just such a great player. You had most valuable asset? to do things the way they wanted you to do it. And that was okay. It wasn’t like they were asking you do to anything PUHL: Even from a young age in the minors, we would ‘throw long’ to elevate drastic. But I was focused. I took care of myself. the ball. That strengthens and elongates the muscles of your throwing arm. I used to throw long every second day my whole career. Once you get your arm in shape GOODSILL: How did you take care of yourself? you can do a lot of things that won’t hurt it, if you have reasonable mechanics for throwing. I was blessed with a good body. That’s part of the deal. Some guys break PUHL: I made sure I got my rest and I ate okay. And down earlier than other guys do. My body is breaking down now, though! (laughs) I didn’t horse around. One thing about professional athletes, at least in baseball, if you try to burn the candle My first year, rookie league, was a split season. My second year was A-Ball. at both ends you can get away with it once in a while. But I had a great year and it put me on the map with the Astros. I was second in if you are doing it on a regular basis, you can’t survive. It hitting. Pedro Guerrero, who played with the Dodgers for many, many years, is just SO competitive. There are so many people who ended up winning the league championship in hitting and I was second. I hit ARE taking care of themselves. So that was my life for .349. I had a fabulous year. I got a big write-up in The Sporting News that the 3-1/2 years I spent in the minor leagues. year. The Astros really liked me. The following year I went to Double-A in Columbus, Georgia but was there only a month and a half.